Direct Wholesale Warehouse

Archive for June, 2009

If you can set up, work, and finish your repair in a day, the seven habits of intact DIYers should be enough rules to keep you safe.

For projects of longer duration, remember the following:

• Train your kids, your pets, your elders—anyone who’s not working with you—to keep away from a work site unless they’re invited to observe. You can show them what you’re up to when you’re on a break.
• Repair materials and tools should be safely stored away whenever you finish for the day. If toxic materials like paint and solvents or power tools are being used, keep them out of reach of children or pets, even when you just step away for a couple of minutes.
• Drop cloths and spread-out newspaper can be slippery for other members of your household who are not dressed for the work; pick them up and sweep at the end of a repair session. Replace the protective coverings when you start the next day (or the next weekend).

This may seem logical to most readers, but sometimes an extra step for safety securing tools and materials just in case a child or pet may get curious, or carefully picking up just in case someone’s not paying attention—seems like too much work to others. Making a mistake that someone you love might have to pay for is just too high a price.

Be safe, not sorry.

You need just a few sharp tools for most of the cutting you’ll do for basic improvements and repairs.

I don’t know about your house, but in mine, scissors tend to migrate, like all those socks that disappear in the dryer, never to be seen again. To remind yourself to return them to your toolbox when you’ve “borrowed” them for another purpose, take a piece of masking tape and label your toolbox scissors (“Mom’s toolbox,” or “Dad’s toolbox,” or “My toolbox”) so they aren’t MIA when you need them. Sturdy scissors with 5″ blades should handle most cutting tasks nicely.

There are so many uses for a utility knife around the house that a list of them could practically fill this book. Although you can pick up a plastic, pencil-sized, 99-cent model at most hardware checkout counters, invest in the standard, palm-filling metal
model. It fits comfortably in your hand, and you can adjust and retract the blade with a simple lever. Plus, it uses disposable blades that can be stored inside the handle. It costs a couple of bucks and will last a lifetime.

Wire cutters do what they say. In a pinch, you can repeatedly twist a wire until it breaks from all the abuse, but a wire cutter does the job in a single snip! When you’re learning repair and DIY skills, the most versatile hand saw for cutting wood is called, simply, a toolbox saw; it has a fairly short blade (about 15 inches or so), and is easy to use. Look for a model that can be re-sharpened, as all saws will lose their edge over time. The toolbox saw is good for making short cuts; remember only to apply pressure on your downstroke (push).

Although it may look scary, it works great. I’d never seen a Japanese pull saw before I took a course in carpentry for women a few years ago. The one pictured is a doubleedged saw; one side has coarse rip teeth for cutting wood with the grain, and the other side has more closely spaced cross-cut teeth, for (did you guess?) cutting across the grain. It looks like a most imposing spatula, and unlike the American toolbox saw, it cuts on the pull stroke—a much easier and more elegant way to saw, to my way of thinking. And when the saw gets dull, you can buy a replacement blade.

A sturdy 20- or 25-foot retractable measuring tape is indispensable for all kinds of jobs around the house. Some people opt for the lighter-weight, 12-foot model, but eventually realize that the longer one is more versatile.

These come in plastic or metal cases, and the best have a stop lever so that you can extend and hold the tape in its extended position, without holding on to the case. This is a particularly good feature when you’re marking the distance of long runs around a room.

About those little tick marks along the tape: carpenters can tell at a glance whether a mark indicates 73/8 inches or 75/8. If you’re not so good at fractions, get a tape with a fractional read. This measure has the intervals—eighths, quarters, and halves of inches—marked clearly with the appropriate fraction, so you don’t need to guess.

Better-quality tapes also have a clasp that makes it easy to attach the case to your belt while working, so you don’t have to constantly hunt for it. A metal ruler—also known as a straightedge—is another handy device for measuring. It serves as a ruler and as a rigid guide for a utility knife or glass cutter when you want to score a surface. An 18″ straightedge is a good size for lots of jobs. Straightedges are also available in plastic; metal is slightly more expensive but much more durable.

A speed square has a lot of uses in carpentry, allowing you to mark angles, then draw guidelines. One of the straight sides of this triangular device has a lip, which can fit along the edge of a piece of material (a 2×4 piece of framing lumber, for example) letting its other straight side serve as a guide for marking/cutting a piece of wood or other material at a perfectly perpendicular angle (90 degrees). Speed squares are made in metal and plastic; I like the heft and feel of the metal variety.

Unless you’re planning to do lots of carpentry, you don’t need a big, fancy, and expensive carpenter’s level. Instead, opt for a small torpedo level, so called because of its shape, to check whether shelves, rods, curtain poles, doors, and other household objects are hanging straight horizontally (level) or vertically (plumb). The torpedo level is one type of spirit level, so called because the measuring device employs a vial filled with liquid, usually ethanol—the “spirit”—containing an air bubble that falls between guidelines when the instrument rests plumb or level.

It’s a good idea to inspect and repair your roof in autumn, before the hard weather hits. Then examine the roof again in spring to assess whatever damage may have occurred during the winter.

Inspecting from inside.

Begin an inspection in the attic, using a strong flashlight, a thin screwdriver, a knife, and a piece of chalk to examine the ridge beam, rafters, and sheathing. Look for water stains, dark-colored areas of wet wood, moisture, and soft spots that may indicate dry rot. Mark the wet spots with chalk so you can find them easily later on.

If it’s necessary to remove fiberglass insulation batts to examine the sheathing, be sure to wear loose clothing, gloves, goggles, and a respirator for protection. Next, turn off any lights. If you see any holes above you, drive nails or poke wire through them so they’ll be visible from the roof’s surface. (In a wood shingle roof, small shafts of light coming in at an angle indicate cracks that may swell shut when the shingles are wet.)

Inspecting from outside.

When you examine the roof from outdoors, evaluate the condition of the roof structure, surface material, flashings, eaves, and gutters. To check the roof structure, stand back from the house and look at the lines of the ridge and rafters. The ridge line should be perfectly horizontal, and the line of the rafters, which you can assess by looking along the plane of each roof section, should be straight. If either sags, call in a professional contractor—you may have a structural problem.

Next, inspect the roof’s surface. If you’re at all nervous about going up on the roof, make the inspection from a ladder, using a pair of binoculars. Don’t walk on the roof any more than is absolutely necessary; you can easily cause more damage. Inspect the flashings for rust spots and broken seals along the edges. If you have metal gutters and downspouts, look for rust spots and holes. Then examine the roof surface for signs of wear, loose or broken nails, or curled, broken, or missing shingles.

Use a knife and screwdriver to test the boards along the eaves and rakes. Scrape out any damage caused by dry rot, treat with a wood preservative, and fill the holes with wood putty If the damage is extensive, replace the boards and finish them to match the existing areas.

Most homeowners don’t pay much attention to their roof until rain or melting snow starts to leak through it—then it demands immediate action. But if you periodically inspect your roof, you can correct minor problems before they become serious enough to cause damage.

Understanding the structure of your roof (see below) is the first step toward diagnosing possible problems. On the facing page, you’ll find directions for inspecting your roof from the inside and outside.

CAUTION; Tile and slate roofs are extremely slippery, and the materials can break easily; metal and plastic roofs also tend to be slippery.  If your house has one of these out-of-theordinary roofs, it’s best to leave inspection and repairs to a professional roofing contractor.

A roof protects a house from damage by the elements, especially water. Roofs are designed to shed water; the parts comprising a roof combine to direct water off the roof and away from the house.

Anatomy of a roof

A typical roof (see illustration at right) begins with a framework of rafters which supports a roof deck (sometimes called a subroof) consisting of sheathing and underlayment. The roof deck, in turn, provides a nailing base for the roof surface material.

The roof deck. Though the type of roof deck used can vary depending on the roof surface material, most decks have both sheathing and underlayment.

The roof surface. The material on the roof must be able to withstand wind, rain, snow, hail, and sun.